CHUCK PROPHET - Temple Beautiful

Chuck Prophet carries thirty years of honorable outsider service on his shoulders. After a decade spent against the grain as guitarist for the cult band Green On Red, the Californian singer-songwriter hasn't been sitting idle. Guitar in hand, and mindful of the dusty desert rock of his old band as well as the lessons of garage-punk, Prophet has decided to sing the praises of his one true love: his city, San Francisco.

His twelfth studio album "Temple Beautiful" doesn't reinvent anything - instead, it looks back at rock's roots with a bird's-eye view of its history. A flight from which he occasionally swoops down to pluck one of Frisco's countless stories, wrapping them in a thin haze of relaxation. That's the mood you can breathe in deeply throughout every track on the record, from the more driving numbers to the softer ones.

Chuck comes across as pretty unconcerned with forms and formalities of any kind, having fun hopping between legends of baseball players and mythical figures from the city's history (Harvey Milk and Emperor Norton above all). So you can find yourself facing the catchy rock of "Play That Song Again", "Castro Hallowe'en" and "I Felt Like Jesus", dance along to the rock'n'roll flavor of the title track, return to the lysergic atmospheres of Green On Red with "Museum Of Broken Heart" and "Willie Mays Is Up At Bat", and even be surprised to find the dreamy hypnosis of Broken Social Scene (!) in "He Came From So Far Away (Red Man Speaks)".

There's all of the West Coast, not just San Francisco, in this album put together with the smile of someone who has nothing to lose or gain, but who's simply doing what he loves most: strumming his guitar up and down Frisco's steep hills all the way to the Golden Gate. And to hell with everything else.

Ride the wave of great music

Add OndaRock to your favorite sources on Google Discover. Don't miss our reviews, milestones and latest news straight in your feed.

Follow on Google

19/04/2012